Rivet-feeding mechanism



A. F. RENAUD.

RIVET FEEDING MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED 1uLY29.192o.

1,416,5Q9 Patented May 16, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

A TTORNEYS A. F. REN AUD. RIVET FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED JUL'Y29. 1920.

Patented M 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

III/II W/ T/VESSES 4 TTOR/VEYS FEE.

a M" a ARISTIDE F. RENAUD, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, ASSIGNOR TO THE RENAUD COMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

IRIVET-lEllIllDIltl'Gr MECHANISM.

iaienoe.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Anrsrmn FREDERICK RENAUD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented a new and Improved Rivet-Feeding Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to an attachment for punch presses and has particular reference to an' improved rivet feeding mechanism designed for use in connection therewith.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a rivet feeding mechanism for association with a punch press and operable thereby for automatically feeding and presenting the rivets in proper position adj acent to the bolster plate of the press to receive the openings in strips previously punched therein by the press.

Another object of the invention is to provide a rivet feeding mechanism including a magazine, a hopper and a chute establishing communication therebetween which is twisted to the extent of 90 from its inlet to its outlet permitting the rivets to leave its outlet end with the shanks in substantially horizontal plane and with the heads of the rivets in a vertical plane.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a rivet chute which is so arranged as to cause the rivets to roll into the magazine thereby reducing friction and eliminating clogging of the chute.

With the above recited and other objects in View some of which will be apparent hereafter, reference is made to the following detailed description, claims and accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1' is a side elevation of a punch press with the improved rivet feeding mechanism associated therewith.

Figure 2 is a front elevation thereof.

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view through the receiving drum and agitator and a portion of the track inlet.

Figure at is an enlarged detail front view of the magazine.

Figure 5 is an enlarged sideelevation thereof partly in section.

Figure 6 is a detail view of the completed tie finished by the machine.

Figure 7 is a sectional view on the line 7-7 of Figure 2.

Referring to the drawings by characters of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 29,

reference which denote like parts throughout the several views thereof, 10 designates a punch press of substantially standard construction, provided with the usual table 11 underlying the head 12. The table supports anysuitable form of bolster 13 for the dies which function in connection with the punches, cutting dies and-riveting heads carried by the plunger head 14:. The punch press has mounted in suitable bearings at the upper portion thereof a drive shaft 15 which operates the plunger head and which has loosely mounted on its rear extremity a combination fly wheel and pulley 16 adapted to be intermittently clutched thereto by the clutch mechanism 17 controlled by the foot pedal 18. I

The rivet feeding mechanism includes a shaft 20 arranged in a suitable bearing opening in the punch press extending from front to rear below the table. -The front end of the shaft 20 has keyed thereto the magazine which comprises a disc 21 having a peripheral flange 22 cut away as at 23 on the side confronting the table. An annular band 24 surrounds the peripheral flange and is secured thereto by means of the fastening elements 25. This construction provides in effect an annular groove in the face of the disc confronting the press. The band is slotted equi-distantly from its inner surface toward the center thereof to afford slots 26 for the reception of rivet shanks, the cut away portion being designed to accommodate the heads of the rivets. An arcuate plate 27 is secured to the outer face of the table 11 and extends from a point adjacent the bolster plate to a point approximately 270 around the circumference of the magazine for closing the open ends of the slots 26. The combined receiving drum and agitator 28 is keyed to theinclined shaft 29 supported in the bearings 30 and arranged at one side of the drive shaft 15, the said shaft 29 has keyed there to an angularly toothed gear 31 which meshes with a similar gear 32 keyed on the drive shaft. The drum 28 is closed at one end and open at its opposite end, said open end being received by the hopper 33 and slightly spaced from the annular abutment rim 34 thereof to provide a s ace for the reception of the rivet heads. T e open end of the drum is slotted inwardly to provide the rivet shank receiving slots 35. A

conveyor track 36 having a substantially T-shaped groove 37 communicates with the hopper to receive the rivets therefrom. Thetrack is twisted approximately 90 from its intake end to the oppositelower, end which is disposed immediately adjacent to the magazine slightly above the point at which the arcuate plate 27 terminates.

The inner end of the shaft 20 has keyed thereto a ratchet 40 and has loosely mounted thereon a rock arm 4-1 which has pivotec thereto a pawl 42 adapted to co-act with the ratchet. The free extremity of the rock arm is connected by a rod 43 to an eccentric ring 44 mounted on a suitable eccentric 45 on the end of the drive shaft'15.

In use and operation the rivets R are supplied to the hopper and receiving drum where they gravitate and are properly fed therefrom to the chute until the same is filled. The slots 26 of the magazine WlllCll are covered by the arcuate plate 27 are filled with rivets and the machine is now ready for operation. After the ends of the strips 4:6 and l? have been punched the same are then arranged in overlapped relation and engaged over the two uppermost rivets, said bands being used as a means to strip the rivets from the slots 26 and to position them under the riveting head of the press. As the press is operated to rivet the strips together, the eccentric will function to oscillate the rod 43 and by turning the shaftQU'through the pawl and ratchet mechanism one tooth to bring a new rivet in place. The next operation of the press to cut and punch the strips will bring another rivet in position thus feeding the rivets adjacent to the bolster plate as fast as they are used. As the slots 26 are emptied and register with the lower outlet end of the chute 36, new rivets will be constantly fed thereto by gravity. The rotations imparted to the combined receiving drum and agitator 28 will agitate the supply of rivets contained therein and cause the shanks of the same to gravitate into the slots 35 with the heads between the open end of the agitator drum and the rim 34-. As will be seen the rivets are fed to the magazine from the chute with their shanks disposed horizontally and the heads vertically thus tending to roll the same into the slots 26, thereby reducing friction and minimizing the possibility of clogging of the chute.

While there has been illustrated and described a single and preferred embodiment of the invention, no limitation is necessarily made to the precise structural details eX- cept in so far as they are limited by the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination with a punch press having a drive shaft, a drive pulley loosely mounted thereon, and a clutch means operable to couple the latter to the former, of a rivet feeding mechanism comprisingv a hopper, a receiving agitator drum communicating with the hopper, means for rotating the drum from the drive shaft, a magazine shaft, a magazine keyed thereto, a chute serving to establish communication between the drum and the magazine, the outlet end of said chute being arranged to feed the rivets to the magazine with their shanks horizontal and their heads vertical, whereby to roll the rivets into the magazine.

2. The combination with a. punch press having a drive shaft, a drive pulley loosely mounted. thereon, and a clutch means operable to couple the latter to the former, of a rivet feeding mechanism comprising a hopper, a receiving agitator drum communicating with the hopper, means for rotating the drum from the driveshaft, a magazine shaft, a magazine keyed thereto, a chute serving to establish communication between the drum and the magazine, the outlet end of said chute being twisted 90 degrees from its inlet to its outlet and having its discharge end disposed adjacent one side of the magazine to cause the rivets to be fed thereto with their shanks horizontal and their heads vertical, whereby to effect the rolling of said rivets by gravity from the discharge end of the chute into the magazine.

3. In a machine the combination of a re ceiving hopper, an agitator co-acting with the hopper, a drive shaft journaled in the machine, a supplemental shaft journaled in the machine, connections between the shafts, a magazine keyed to one end of said supplemental shaft, a chute between the agitator and the magazine, said chute twisted to an amount equal to 90 degrees from its inlet to its outlet end, to enable the rivets to be discharged therefrom at the outlet end and to the magazine with the heads of the rivets in a'vertical plane and their shanks in a horizontal plane, to cause the same to roll by gravity from the chute into the magazine.

4. The combination with a punch press having a drive shaft, a drive pulley loosely mounted thereon, and a clutch means operable to couple the latter to the former, of a rivet feeding mechanism comprising a hopper, a receiving agitator drum communicating with the hopper and co-acting therewith for discharging the rivets therefrom, means for rotating the drum from the drive shaft, a magazine shaft, a magazine keyed thereto, means between the drive shaft and the magazine shaft for turning the magazine a predetermined distance upon each revolution of the drive shaft, a chute establishing communication between the hopper and the magazine, the magazine being provided with slots to receive the shanks of the rivets, the

outlet end of said chute being arranged to feed the rivets to the slots in the magazine with their shanks horizontal and their heads vertical, whereby to cause said rivets to gravitationally roll from the discharge end of the chute into the slots of the magazine.

5. In a rivet feeding mechanism, a rotary intermittently actuated distributor magazine disk having an annular groove in one side thereof adjacent its peripheral edge adapted to accommodate the rivet heads and provided with spaced slots in the peripheral edge extending inwardly from said side to accommodate the rivet shanks and dispose the shanks of said rivets radially from the peripheral edge of the magazine disk, a superposed rivet hopper, and a chute having a T- shaped groove therein establishing communication between the hopper and the magazine disk, the lower discharge end of said chute being disposed with respect to the magazine disk to effect the rolling of the rivets into the slots and groove gravitationally.

6. A rivet feeding mechanism, comprising a distributor magazine disk provided with rivet shank receiving slots in the periphery thereof, and an annular rivet head receiving groove in the side thereof having communication with the slots, a rivet chute having a T-shaped channel bearing against the magazine disk at its lower end and providing means for receiving and gravitationally fitting the rivets to the distributor disk with the heads in a vertical plane and the shanks in a horizontal plane to cause the same to roll into theslots and groove.

7 A rivet feeding mechanism, comprising a rotary magazine having an annular rivet head receiving groove in one side thereof and circumferentially spaced rivet shank receiving slots extending inwardly from said side and communicating with the groove, a superposed rivet receptacle, and a rivet chute provided with a T-shaped channel therein and having communication with the receptacle to receive the rivets at its upper end and gravitationally convey and feed the same to the magazine from its lower discharge end with the shanks in a horizontal plane and the heads in a vertical plane whereby the rolling of the rivets from the discharge end of the chute into the magazine will be elfected.

ARISTIDE F. RENAUD. 

